Africa...nope, not a truck trip!

A bit over a year ago, a friend of mine mentioned he was planning a trip to Africa. My response was, "Jim, what do you think about a travel partner?"...and the journey began. Jim took the lead of the planning, so I was hoping he had a clue what he was doing, and he met that hope.

The plan was to get into South Africa on Sunday (Johannesburg), head up to the Cradle of Life area for a couple nights, then fly out to Botswana. A flight delay, missed connection, and I got in on Monday...and it was amazing from the start.

Since I got in a day late, it was a brief stay, but a lovely facility (Cradle of Life Boutique Hotel). Off to hop on a little plane to make our way to Botswana (Tuesday), where we'll stay until Saturday. I really don't have words for this part of the trip. From the place we stayed (Euphorbia), to the people we had the pleasure of meeting (staff and other guests), and the amazing wildlife and landscape...I can only say I was left speechless very often.

As an example, we got picked up at the airport, and before we even made it to the lodge...(and a quick shot from the plane). We also saw a wildebeest, but I didn't get a decent picture of it.

After that...we got to the lodge and settled in a bit. As we approached, Euphorbia is built in a very neat way, integrated nicely into the landscape. The rooms (villas I guess) were amazing, the views from them were as well (we saw a lot of wildlife from the room), and every day we got taken around in Land Cruisers to see the sights!

These next pictures will kind of be from the stay at Euphorbia. The first picture shows the "nest", which is like a deck that you can stand out on and look across a large area, and is an amazing place to get lessons from the local astronomers about the sky in the southern hemisphere. Every day we saw lions, leopards, wildebeests, impala, kudu, elephants, giraffes, baboons, zebras...the list was kind of endless!

As the day progressed (I think this was still the same day), we got to see our first elephants (pictures weren't great so I'll use other elephant pictures) on our way to see a leopard that had recently found dinner and was trying to protect it by getting it into a tree (but she had to take some breaks, and we later learned she wasn't able to and hyenas got it from her).

After that, we did come across some more elephants, another sleeping lion, and some impala and kudu (kudu pictured).

I was pretty overwhelmed at this point, so if I'm not looking at timestamps on the pictures, the time kind of ran together...one amazing thing after another until it was magically time to go. I was really taken by the hyenas, which I didn't expect based on how they're often portrayed on nature shows. The black lump in the third picture below, is a little hyena puppy that had just opened its eyes in the last couple of days.

Watching the lions walking across the plains seemed...too picture perfect. This kinda changes when the driver fires up the truck, and stops it about 50 meters in front of the lions, in their path. This means they have to walk around the truck, as they don't seem to just walk over it for some reason (seems like a delivery service if you ask me).

With animals that are so foreign, seeing them never seemed to really get tiring or boring. The impala are everywhere, and beautiful (although kind of at the bottom of the food chain out there). The giraffes are always neat to see, and amazing to watch run. Elephants continue to impress. Lions act differently in each group, or individual.

Every day was more incredible vistas and animal sightings. Paul (not his given name, but I can't recall how to spell it now) was an amazing guide, and I had to grab a picture of our guide and the truck (while Jim was wiping his face with one of the warm towels they bring us when ever we got back from a game drive). We spent the evening at "The Hide", which is basically a bunker right next to a watering hole, which was an interesting experience (great views of whatever animals showed up, but not a lot of variety in the scenery other than animals). Nice sunset on the drive home from The Hide.

After this, we were really just over half way done with our time in Botswana, but I didn't know what else it could show me that I hadn't seen, but I was surprised again and again. The pair of lions you see here, we actually watched mate (felt odd to watch, but they didn't care...so, human projections I guess), and the drivers place the trucks in front of where lions are walking, forcing lions to walk around the vehicles. I got Jim to take a picture of me with hyenas in the background, just to demonstrate how close we really do get to these animals (closer than in a zoo quite often!)

And then we were really getting to the end of it...last day in Botswana. Woke up with the 5AM door knock, out the door at 5:30, on the truck by 6AM to catch sunrise and find a pride of lions with an overnight kill. While not really captured in the pictures, it was amazing to watch how everything works when lions get a meal like this. Jackals were everywhere (we counted over a dozen) trying to get a snack (but it seemed likely they would be one if they got close enough for a nibble), hyenas started coming in (calling out to bring more in), and even vultures hiding in the shade of a tree waiting for something they could get a bit of. It was an amazing stay in Botswana, I can't wait to go back!

But, that was just week one....given that the rest of the time was in Cape Town, and then Grootbos Nature Reserve, there weren't nearly as many pictures taken...but it was a beautiful area as well (weather was pretty sketch for parts, limiting how we could spend time outside...also limiting pictures). You can see the rough seas, and hazy weather to start the day. It stayed brisk as we came across an ostrich at the beach, and made our way to the Cape of Good Hope. Got to see some penguins (and an amusing sign), and some other beautiful vistas. Also seal island (it appears to just be a lot of shades of brown, but some of those are seals) where the Great Whites like to hang out, but they had been run off by the orcas earlier in the year. And then a final sunset at Grootbos, before heading back to the states...what a trip!